Hansard debates

Mr O'SULLIVAN (Northern Victoria) — It is a pity it takes two Supreme Court hearings, endless motions moved by the coalition in this chamber and the other place and three months of waiting to take my rightful position in this place. By contrast, the Labor Party scheduled a joint sitting for Senator Conroy's replacement two days prior to their candidate even being preselected.

President, I am delighted to be able to present my inaugural speech to the Legislative Council today to represent the people of Northern Victoria. I am just a humble man from Patchewollock in the Mallee. My father was a farmer and my mother was a primary school teacher. I was very privileged to have been brought up in a loving family at Pine Plains, our family property at Patchewollock, a property we shared with my uncle and aunty. Between our two families there were 12 children, and more than half of them are here today.

My parents provided a very stable family upbringing and the encouragement to have a go. I am very proud to have many of my extended family and friends here today as well, particularly my Aunty Sue O'Sullivan. My extended family also includes my fellow Nationals MPs. I thank them for their ongoing support and their dedication to regional Victoria.

We still have our property Pine Plains in Patchewollock, even though it is in a reduced form. I am very fortunate to have grown up in the country and on a farm. It taught me how to be practical and to use common sense to deal with challenges and to maximise opportunities. These traits have held me in good stead throughout my life. I find that if you use common sense and a practical approach, you can go a long way to face the issues and achieve the best outcomes.

I intend to bring a common-sense and practical approach to my deliberations in this place. My parents, Brian and Kaye, instilled some of the most important life skills you could hope for: to respect your elders; to be polite to others; and most importantly to think for yourself and be your own person. My sister Brigid, my brother Paddy and I learned these traits by watching and listening to the style and example set by our parents. It is an example that I am very pleased to have witnessed and grown up with. It is an example that has forged the values that I live by today.

My brother Paddy has been a huge influence on just about every aspect of my life. He provides very sound counsel that has helped me through a range of scenarios, and he will continue to do that in the future, and I thank him for it. I would also like to congratulate him on being appointed as the CEO of the Australian Hotels Association Victoria. My sister Brigid is also the person that I look up to most in life. Without doubt she is the most decent person I know, and the example she and her husband set for their children is an inspiration to me.

With me having grown up on a farm where the nearest town was 25 kilometres away and the secondary college I went to was an hour and a half by bus, my parents enrolled me at St Patrick's College in Ballarat to conclude my secondary education. Being a boarder at St Patrick's was a fantastic experience and taught me a lot about being an adult and sorting out my own affairs. Although my parents had hoped my biggest achievement at St Pat's would have been in an academic sense, I am proud to say that I played in the first 18 football team. While many former Nationals MPs and many of St Pat's first 18 players went on to play AFL, sadly I did not. I ended up playing in the back pocket for Power House in the amateurs in division 4 and in the reserves. St Patrick's taught me a lot of things, but above all it taught me to strive to achieve, to be proud of where I came from and to be proud of what I do. Also I must acknowledge my colleague Mr Josh Morris, who also is a St Pat's boy.

I am proud to stand here today as a member of The Nationals. My father, Brian, was a state president of The Nationals and is a life member. He introduced me to the party, and I have been intricately involved ever since. I served as the state director of the National Party for six years. I went on to be the chief of staff to Peter Walsh when he was the Minister for Agriculture and Food Security and Minister for Water. I have since served as Peter's chief of staff when he became Leader of The Nationals. Having worked with Peter Walsh for over six years I have seen firsthand the strength of conviction and character as well as the dedication required to represent and be a leader on behalf of your community.

Peter Walsh and Matthew Guy, as the leaders of the Liberal-Nationals coalition in the Legislative Assembly, have overseen the most unified and strong coalition ever between our two parties. I am a strong coalitionist, and I will actively support its ongoing purpose for the betterment of the people who live in this state. The coalition is in very safe hands under the guidance of Peter Walsh and Matthew Guy.

Over the years I have been involved with The Nationals I have had the privilege to be involved in the heartbeat of democracy through the election of everyday people to parliaments, both state and federal. I have fond memories of working as a campaign director in the seat of Burrup in the far north of Western Australia back in 1998. It was a seat that The Nationals were contesting for the first time. I was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as I spoke to the state president of the Western Australian Nationals, Dexter Davies, to ask him a few questions about the impending campaign. 'So, Dexter', I asked, 'how many campaigns has the candidate been involved with before?', to which he politely replied, 'None'. Okay, so I asked, 'How many members do we have in the electorate and how many branches?', to which he again replied, 'None'. I then asked, 'How many people are there on the campaign committee?', and to that question he answered, 'One. It's you'. I asked one last question: 'So what is going to be the campaign budget that we will have to deal with?', to which he roared with laughter and said, 'None!'.

The campaign was in the height of summer in outback Western Australia, and it was 40 degrees most days. I was staying in the candidate's backyard in an old caravan without air conditioning. It was a tough initiation to campaigning outback style in Western Australia, but I loved every minute of it. In the end we did not win the seat, but we made one of the safest seats in WA into the most marginal. The Burrup campaign taught me how to make the most of every opportunity and to scrape and fight for every advantage you can get without the extravagance of money.

A lot of lessons from that campaign and across the campaigns I have run over the years have culminated in my forebearer and good friend Damian Drum winning the seat of Murray at the recent federal election. I wish Damian all the best on his new venture into the world of federal politics, and I hope to carry on the fine example set by Damian in this place.

Standing here today, I cannot help but reflect on some of the past members who have served in this place before me. Many of them are my political heroes and mentors. The person I particularly look up to is Roger Hallam. Roger's contribution in this place was immense, and his roles as Minister for Finance, Minister for Local Government and Minister for Gaming in the Kennett era saw him instigate some reforms that made this state better. Of particular note was his reform of the local government sector. At the time council amalgamations were not popular, and many fought vigorously against them. Those reforms live on strongly today. In fact it is high time we looked at the next round of reform of local government. A farmer from Hopetoun was telling me just last week his council rates double every 5 to 10 years, and he is now paying $50 000 per annum. For his $50 000 that he pays in rates each year, his rubbish does not even get collected. I believe we need to look at having local councils receive an alternative revenue source, and rural councils should receive a loading for the lower population base they have.

Another former member of this place who has played a significant role in mentoring me over many years is Ron Best. Ron is a good mate of my father's, and Ron has played a fatherly type role in my life for many years. He has helped to guide me through just about every aspect of my career, and I thank him for it.

There are many reasons why I put my hand up to represent the people of northern Victoria in this place. One of those reasons was due to a piece of legislation that was passed in this place back in 1990 which had a profound impact on my life and particularly on my family. As long as I live I will never forget it, and I will fight hard in this position to ensure that it does not happen to others in the same way. I fear that just around the corner it might happen again, with murmurings about the great forest national park.

Back in the late 1980s the then John Cain Labor government formed a committee called the Land Conservation Council to look into leaseholds of public lands in north-west Victoria. The Land Conservation Council wrote a report which recommended to the Labor government that it cancel several leaseholds and convert long-established family farms into national parks. My family's property was one of the leaseholds that were cancelled by a simple stroke of the pen in this very chamber. I sat in the gallery, where my family are sitting today, and witnessed the vote taking place.

The legislation was supported by the Labor Party and, to my family's dismay, it was also supported by the Liberal Party. It was only The Nationals who stood strong and voted against the creation of a new national park at Patchewollock and at Hattah, which took the property from the McArthur family. The strength of The Nationals in standing up for rural and regional people has long been established, and that is why The Nationals more than ever are critical to the political landscape of regional Australia in standing up for what is right for the people who live outside of the capital cities. Watching that vote take place in 1990 made me realise that the decisions that are made with a simple stroke of the pen and the results of those strokes of the pen have lifelong impacts on people's lives. This place is meant to be where decisions are made to make people's lives better, not worse.

Our once-proud property was very productive. We were running 6000 merino sheep and 600 Hereford cattle. This farming enterprise supported two families and created employment for many locals, particularly during shearing and the mustering of stock. Grazing operations controlled noxious weeds and reduced the fuel loads to ensure that fires were never a threat to life and property, let alone fauna and flora. Now that the farm has been taken away to expand the Wyperfeld National Park, without grazing, weeds such as horehound and onion weed have flourished and are taking over this once-proud property. Having been back there just last week, there are scorched remains of the mallee trees, the box trees and the pine trees as far as the eye can see, as bushfires regularly burn due to overgrown fuel loads.

Do not get me wrong: I am not against existing national parks and public land when they are managed properly. But I will not stand for any new national parks until the current parks are managed properly, and I certainly will not be supporting the taking of productive leasehold properties to extend the current national parks for a cheap political hit.

The biggest issue confronting Victoria in the future is the lack of planning. The current population growth predictions indicate that there are more than 100 000 people per year, or a new Mildura and Shepparton, settling in Victoria annually. The predictions in the Victoria in Future 2016 report show Victoria's population will reach 10 million by 2051, and Melbourne's current population will double by 2031. With Melbourne already congested now, Melbourne doubling to a population of 8 million in just 15 years is going to cripple productivity and livability. Melbourne needs more public transport and roads to cope now, let alone when the population doubles. To think that the Daniel Andrews government wasted $1.2 billion to not build the east–west link demonstrates just how short-sighted this Labor government is in terms of planning to deal with significant population growth in the future.

I believe that Melbourne is not in a position to double in population by 2031. We need to be encouraging new residents to locate to rural and regional Victoria. Many small communities have experienced a decline in population and would welcome having new residents. We need to have policies that will encourage businesses to relocate to regional centres. We need to look at incentives to encourage businesses to establish outside of Melbourne. This would create new productivity and new jobs for regional Victoria. We need to have better access to Melbourne via rail so people can live in the regions and commute to Melbourne to work should they wish to.

The institution that I am privileged to stand in today is an institution that none of us should ever take for granted. We are all here for a reason. We are all here to make a contribution to this great state. We are all here to leave this place in a better position than it was in when we first arrived. We are all here to make sure that this state reaches its full potential. There are 6 million people in Victoria who are counting on us to do the right thing and make their lives better. There are 6 million people who expect us to fix the problems and remove the barriers so they can get on with doing business, living their lives, raising their children and working in their local communities. Our job is to set the right political and regulatory framework for them to do so. Our job is to give them the tools they need to get on with doing what they want to do without unnecessarily interfering in what they do. Our job is to look after the people who genuinely cannot look after themselves and to get out of the road of those people who are having a crack.

Finally, I would like to thank some of the people who have helped me get here today. In particular, I would like to thank my partner, Steph Nicholls, for all her love and her support. Steph was the person who finally convinced me to nominate for preselection for this position. She sent me a text just before the close of nominations, and it read: 'You've put in an amazing effort getting everyone else elected and now it's your turn. A month is a short time in the big scheme of things and I am here to support you always. I love you. Let's get it done'.

To my beautiful daughters, Olivia and Layla, you mean the world to me and I love you both dearly.

The level of expectation that I have on myself in this place is that when they both get a bit older they will be proud of what their dad has done and they will be proud of what I have done for this state. Thank you.

Business interrupted pursuant to standing orders.